wight
Plural: wights
Noun
- A living being; a person or creature.
- a human being; `wight' is an archaic term
- an isle and county of southern England in the English Channel
- A living creature, especially a human being.
- A supernatural being, often used in compounds such as the land-vættr which guard the land, especially the four guardians of Iceland.
- A ghost, deity or other supernatural entity.
- A wraith-like creature.
Adj
- Brave, valorous, strong.
- Strong; stout; active.
Examples
- The mysterious new player was a strange wight, always pulling triple-word scores from nowhere.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English wight, wiȝt, from Old English wiht (“thing, creature”), from Proto-West Germanic *wihti, from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz (“thing, creature”, literally “being”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”).
Cognate with Scots wicht (“creature, being, human”), Dutch wicht (“child, baby, girl”), German Low German Wicht (“girl; wight”), German Wicht (“wretch, wight, little creature, scoundrel”), Danish vætte (“underground creature, gnome”), Norwegian Bokmål vette (“underground creature, gnome”), Swedish vätte (“underground creature, gnome”), Icelandic vættur (“imp, elf”). Doublet of whit.
Synonyms
creature, Isle of Wight
Scrabble Score: 12
wight: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordwight: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
wight: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary